Rumen bacterial communities shift across a lactation in Holstein, Jersey and Holstein × Jersey dairy cows and correlate to rumen function, bacterial fatty acid composition and production parameters

Abstract

Rumen bacteria form a dynamic, complex, symbiotic relationship with their host, degrading forages to provide volatile fatty acids (VFA) and other substrates as energy to the animal. The objectives were to characterize rumen bacteria in three genetic lines of primiparous dairy cattle, Holstein (HO, n = 7), Jersey (JE, n = 8), and HO × JE crossbreeds (CB, n = 7) across a lactation [3, 93, 183 and 273 days in milk (DIM)] and correlate these factors with VFA, bacterial cell membrane fatty acids (FA), and animal production (i.e. milk yield). This study employed Illumina MiSeq (v. 3) to investigate rumen bacterial communities and gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy to identify bacterial membrane FA. Lactation stage had a prominent effect on rumen bacterial communities, whereas genetics had a lesser effect on rumen bacteria. The FA composition of bacterial cell membranes was affected by both lactation stage and genetics. Few correlations existed between VFA and bacterial communities; however, moderate correlations occurred between milk yield, protein percentage, fat yield and rumen bacterial communities. Positive correlations were found between branched-chain FA (BCFA) in bacterial cell membranes and bacterial genera. In conclusion, bacterial communities and their FA compositions are more affected by stage of lactation than by genetics of dairy cow.

The rumen microbiome: a crucial consideration when optimising milk and meat production and nitrogen utilisation efficiency

“…A decreased abundance of Bacteroidetes in comparison to Firmicutes was resulted in increased milk-fat percentages. Similar results were found by Bainbridge et al (2016), where moderate correlations were found between milk yield, protein percentage, fat yield and bacterial communities. This alone indicates the role of the rumen microbiome in shaping host physiological parameters.…”

Rumen microbiota and dietary fat: a mutual shaping

“…), and Acetobacter (Bainbridge et al . ). As a whole, these correlation studies have not yet added clear conclusions to the generally accepted knowledge regarding bacteria involved in rumen BH or interacting with BH.…”

Ruminal microbiota composition associated with ruminal fermentation parameters and milk yield in lactating buffalo in Guangxi, China—A preliminary study

“…With the development and use of new technologies, such as high‐throughput sequencing, our understanding of microbial diversity and complexity has expanded (Jiao et al, ). Recent studies have confirmed that the ruminal microbiota has a significant dynamic response to DMI and rumen fermentation and are related to changes in production parameters such as milk yield and milk composition (Bainbridge, Cersosimo, Wright, & Kraft, ; Derakhshani et al, ). Most research focuses on the relationship between the milk performance and rumen microbiota of dairy cows.…”